The planned opening of a Chick-fil-A in Windsor, Ontario, is drawing protests from LGBT activists, despite the company’s change in giving strategy. 

About 20 people protested outside the Windsor city hall Monday, holding signs reading “Chick-fil-A hates LGBTQ+ people,” and “Chick-fil-A is a homophobe,” according to the Windsor Star. 

The property of the Devonshire Mall in Windsor is the proposed location.

The proposed site was listed on the agenda as information only, and council members did not vote, the Star reported. Still, the protesters said they wanted to make their voices heard.  

“If and when they do open, we’re going to be there protesting,” protest organizer Cole Fortier told the newspaper. “Their grand opening, job fairs, whatever they have, we’re going to be there.”

The Chick-fil-A Foundation last month announced a new donation strategy it said will “provide additional clarity and impact with the causes it supports.” Beginning in 2020, the Chick-fil-A Foundation will support Junior Achievement, Covenant House International and local food banks. 

The Foundation will no longer support the Salvation Army or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes — the two organizations that were at the heart of many LGBTQ protests of Chick-fil-A in recent years. 

The protesters in Windsor, Canada said the Foundation’s change in giving strategy does not…

Two-year-old photos of former mayor and Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg have surfaced showing him volunteering for the Salvation Army, which has recently made headlines after Chick-fil-A removed donations from the charity over their alleged anti-gay agenda.

“I know the photos are two years old, but still, I can’t help but wonder if Mayor Pete just looks at what LGBTQ activists have been working on for years and then chooses to spite it,” said Zach Ford, press secretary of the Alliance for Justice, a progressive organization, in response to the article calling out Buttigieg in Out Magazine.

In the photos, the openly gay candidate is standing outside Peggs restaurant in South Bend, Indiana, ringing a bell for the charity’s Red Kettle Ring Off, according to NBC News. The last known year for his volunteer work was 2015.

The ire with the Salvation Army started in 2012 when trans women claimed the organization was discriminatory towards them. Five years later, the New York City Commission on Human Rights filed a complaint against the charity for allegedly refusing transgender clients at a substance abuse center.

The controversy heated up when Chick-fil-A, a regular sponsor of the charity, was hit with an LGBTQ boycott because of its partnership. Earlier this month, the chicken chain changed course and stopped donations to the Salvation Army for 2020.

But…

Chick-fil-A is distancing itself from a highly criticized donation that was made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a left-leaning organization that labels many Christian ministries “hate groups.”

Tax records show the Chick-fil-A Foundation donated $2,500 to the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2017. The SPLC is known for its “hate map,” which includes 1,020 organizations it labels “hate groups” – but many of which would be called mainstream by evangelical and conservative Christians. The American Family Association, the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom all are considered hate groups by SPLC. 

“The SPLC donation was made by a volunteer member of the Chick-fil-A Foundation Advisory Board,” a Chick-fil-A spokesperson told the Daily Caller last week. “Each volunteer advisor, in 2017, was offered the opportunity to recommend a grant recipient. The grants were given to a range of organizations, including Meals on Wheels, Atlanta Mission, the Holocaust Survivor Support Fund, Georgia Historical Society and brain health research at Emory University.”

The spokesperson then cited Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy.

“He famously said: ‘Probably the greatest gift that God has given any one of us is the power that we have to change people’s lives by what we do,’” the spokesperson said. “The best-run company is the company that is…

China’s Communist Party is cracking down on phone users by blocking words “sensitive to the state”—such as “Almighty God”—and deactivating numbers, according to the Christian Post.

“If one says anything deemed unfavorable to the CCP, he or she will be punished,” Mr. Li, a former employee of state-owned China Mobile Online Services Company said to Bitter Winter. Li, who recently resigned from the company, asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.

While working for China Mobile Online Services, he and 500 other employees monitored all messages and phone calls for sensitive information. Any employee who discovered critical remarks towards the CCP or any other leaders would review it and send to authorities.

“If anyone were not careful enough and missed a piece of sensitive information, this would result in the deduction in monthly salary and year-end bonus,” he said. “I usually had to handle more than ten thousand pieces of information every month. It was unavoidable to make mistakes, at least one or two a year.”

Users who were caught with critical remarks could have their services disabled. “If users wanted to reactivate their service,” Li said, “they have to go to a China Mobile service center with their ID card and write a statement promising never to share any sensitive information again.”

If the comments are deemed…

After legal experts disagreed over Trump’s actions, the House has decided to move forward with impeachment.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee released a 300-page report accusing the President of bribery, obstructing justice, and endangering the country from foreign powers.

“President Trump’s scheme subverted U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine and undermined our national security in favor of two politically motivated investigations that would help his presidential reelection campaign,” the report said.

But legal experts disagree with the charges, CBN News reports. On Wednesday, the House invited four constitutional law experts to testify—one called by Republicans and three called by Democrats. Perhaps predictably, the experts were divided by party lines.

“President Trump has committed impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors by corruptly abusing the office of the presidency,” said one expert, Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor.

“If what we’re talking about is not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable,” said another, UNC law professor Michael Gerhardt.

The third expert, Stanford law professor Pamela Karlan, cautioned lawmakers on the implications of the impeachment. “The evidence reveals a president who used the powers of his office to demand that a foreign government participate in undermining a competing candidate for…

The most popular Bible verse this year on the YouVersion app was a passage about trusting God instead of worrying. 

Philippians 4:6 was the most popular Bible verse of 2019 on YouVersion, the free Bible app that launched in 2008 and grew by 50 million unique installs this year. The verse reads, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” 

Since its launch 11 years ago by Life.Church, YouVersion has been installed 400 million times around the world. The majority of the 400 million installs have taken place outside the United States. Poland, for example, saw a 75 percent increase in installs this year. India experienced 51 percent more engagement on YouVersion compared to 2018.

The YouVersion app offers 2,000 Bible versions in more than 1,350 languages.

“Our desire is to help people grow in their relationship with God by encouraging them to read the Bible and seek Him every day,” said YouVersion founder Bobby Gruenewald. “We’re encouraged to see so many people turning to the Bible in response to their worries, remembering what God has done in their lives, and choosing to trust in His faithfulness.”

The most popular Bible verse in 2018 was Isaiah 41:10: “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my…

Ask just about anyone who knows anything about Atlanta, and they will tell you that there’s not much that is considered peaceful about the English Avenue part of town. Known for its high crime and high poverty statistics, English Avenue is regarded by many in the city as a place where hopes and dreams fall between the cracks; which is precisely what attracted Benjamin Wills, Founder and Head of School at Peace Preparatory Academy, to the area. 

In an interview with Christian Headlines, Wills shared that he knew from the minute he stepped foot in the area that God was calling him to this part of town.

In 2012, while Wills was partaking in 40 days and 40 nights of fasting, God gave him a clear vision, calling him to start a school in Atlanta. The project took three years to come to fruition, but finally, in 2015, Peace Preparatory Academy opened its doors to its first 12 kindergarteners.

From the moment one steps inside the prep school – which now houses pre-k through fourth grade – the building presents a stark contrast to the world you might find outside. 

Everything about Peace Prep speaks of life, optimism and excitement, not to mention the Christian Education that is taking place inside the building. 

The climate of growth and potential it facilitates, encouraged by the love for Christ and community, is precisely what attracted Christian…

The United States Army has ordered a faith-based organization to stop emblazoning Christian messages on official military apparel. Despite Shields of Strength spending the past 20 years printing Bible verses on military dog tags without any issue whatsoever, one complaint now threatens to derail their entire business.

The issue arose when the company was reported to the Department of Defense by Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). Weinstein claimed that engraving religious messages on an item that displays the official military emblem is fundamentally wrong and “poisons the constitutionally-mandated separation of Church and State…” according to Fox News. 

Shortly after this, military branches started contacting Shields of Strength and informed them that they would be pulingl the licenses issued to the group regarding the use of official military logos.

“You are not authorized to put biblical verses on your Army products,” Army Trademark Licensing Program director, Paul Jensen, noted in a letter to the group, according to Fox News. “For example, Joshua 1:9. Please remove ALL biblical references from all of your Army products.”

Shields of Strength’s Kenny Vaughan said he was horrified by the letter and was shocked at how something which serves to bring military members some hope could be seen as so scandalous.

“It’s insane. It’s…

One in four Protestant pastors believe America’s economic picture is negatively impacting their congregation, a significant uptick from last year’s survey by Lifeway Research.

The survey of randomly selected pastors has been conducted annually since 2009 and involves 1,000 pastors. This year’s poll, released Tuesday, found dramatic changes in how the pastors view the economy’s impact on their congregations. The number of pastors who replied the impact is negative was 26 percent, up dramatically from the 14 percent who responded that way last year.

By contrast, more pastors (30 percent) said the economy is having a positive impact, but still a 15-point drop from 2018. Two in five pastors (41 percent) said the economy was not having an impact on their church, an increase from the 35 percent recorded in the last survey.

“Fundamentally, the U.S. economy is in a similar place that it was a year ago,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “Yet pastors are less optimistic about this outside influence on their church than they were in 2018.”

In looking at the trends, Lifeway noted that while the number of respondents who said the economy is having a positive impact dropped from 45 percent last year to 30 percent now, the response is still more than triple what pastors said in the first part of this decade. In the October 2010 survey, as America was…

HYDERABAD, India, December 5, 2019 (Morning Star News) – In an area of central India where tribal animists enlist Maoist militants to kill Christians who refuse to recant, Sodi Joga took it seriously when relatives threatened to kill him, his wife and 5-year-old daughter.

“The villagers demanded that Joga and his family must partake in the cleansing ritual, a puja, which would cleanse them of Christianity and restore them to their previous faith,” Dudhi Bandi, an elder of New Bethesda Yishu Krist Ministries in Sukma District, told Morning Star News. “But they refused to bow to the tribal deities.”
The family had been attending Christian worship services for more than a year in Gadiras village, Chhattisgarh state. When they refused to bow to the tribal deities, villagers expelled the family from their home in the Kalgundapara area of Gadiras village on Nov. 4, Bandi said.

“The villagers threw out the belongings, animals and chickens owned by Sodi Joga,” Bandi said. “Joga did not know where to go. It was his relatives and kinsmen who were threatening that they would kill him, his wife and 5-year-old daughter.”

The family took refuge at a church building in another village for two weeks, and then they returned in spite of the threats, he said. Bandi said he encouraged them to leave as soon as they sense any danger.

“I pray for the Lord’s protection…